Disney World monorail evacuated after power outage

No injuries reported

The Disney World monorail was evacuated Sunday after what passengers said was a possible lightning strike.

File photo

Allen Castillo

Creative Commons 2.0

(CNN) -- As a teenager who basically lives at Disney World, Lily Mock has been on virtually every ride at the Florida amusement park. But no ride has been as surprising as the monorail from Magic Kingdom to Epcot center.

A power outage Sunday evening forced the evacuation of about 120 passengers from the monorail, Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said.

She said weather caused the power outage, but it did not appear a lightning strike was responsible.

Lily said the sky was filled with dark clouds when she, her parents and siblings boarded the monorail around 6 p.m.

"When we sat there, we heard a lot of thunder and saw a few bolts of lightning," the 15-year-old said.

Suddenly, with the monorail about 30 feet in the air, the train came to a halt.

"It wasn't a jolting stop, but it did stop really fast -- the monorail glided to a stop," Lily said.

Without the air conditioner running, the train car got pretty hot over the next 90 minutes.

As they waited for firefighters to help them off, the stranded visitors passed the time by chatting with each other and messaging friends. No one seemed to panic, Lily said.

Firefighters later managed to pop open the top hatch of the train car -- but opted to escort passengers out through the doors, using a lift.

That actually disappointed Lily.

"I kind of wanted to go through the top, I thought it'd be fun," she said.

Despite the mishap, Lily said she'll definitely be back -- especially after getting free passes for the inconvenience.

And for a teen who visits Disney World at least three times a year, the experience was actually pretty cool.

"I just kept saying this is the most exclusive ride, having to evacuate the monorail," Lily said.

Her mother, Melissa Mock, has been visiting Disney World since she was 8 years old. She describes the family as a bunch of "Disney-philes" and didn't mind the surprise at all.

"It was the single most exciting thing that's happened to us since we've been visiting in 30 years," she said.